Well, friends, it is officially beanie weather here, not that many locals mind because the fishing is just fine and one thing’s for sure – there are no crowds.

With the Summer madness well and truly a distant memory, we’re all enjoying cool, calm days and a good dose of serenity.

Previous seasons have had a late trend associated with them so we can probably expect that June will tend to be a ‘crossover’ month with opportunities for the odd striped marlin still available before the anticipated arrival of some good yellowfin tuna next month.

There’s still been 24° water out wide and late into Autumn, Jervis Bay finally cleared up after a very green and murky few months.

This will go down as a dismal season for kings inside JB due to cool, green water with a current that has generally been pushing uphill.

The warm water seemed to hit Beecroft and then head south-east. North of the Bay was a hive of activity on good kings to 18kg with the pro boats and rec fishers working schools with leadlines.

There is still the odd good king and a few rats in the Bay but north is the go if you want a better shot at numbers.

By now the current should have slowed on The Banks, making it fishable on these sunny June days in between the odd batch of weather.

There will be some good kings taken under the cliffs this month on downrigged live squid and you can anchor and berley on the reef edges for a feed of snapper when the seas are safe.

Adding Lowrance StructureScan to our HDS 8 unit a few months back has opened up a lifetime of new opportunities, now that we can clearly see that reef and sand interface which is essential for targeting good snapper country.

Drifting the edges in 40m-50m on the patchy ground will also produce good reef species such as mowies and red rock cod, which are great on the table.

While we’re on the subject of technology, we’ve also installed a new Hydrowave unit on the boat as well. Barra guide Jason Willhelm and business partner Carl Jocumsen are now distributing these units into Australia.

Basically the unit is an underwater speaker which emits the sounds of schooling mullet and prawns into the water to attract fish to the area.

We have seen positive results so far but at the end of the day the fish still have to eat a bait or a lure, so this technology is not a magic pill, it’s just another tool to attract and keep fish in the area and it does just that. Check out www.hydrowaveaustralia.com.au for more info.

While JB didn’t produce a lot of kings, the reds and salmon loved the cooler water. Lure tossers and bait fishers were on even par there for a while leading up to Winter.

The lure guys will definitely fare better over the next few months as plagues of Port Jackson sharks become a nuisance when floating a bait down a berley trail inside JB.

Head to deeper water if you want to fish bait for better results.

There have been good schools of 50cm-70cm salmon hitting trolled lures, plastics and poppers with a vengeance. We had one memorable 100-fish day in late Autumn where we should have taken the hooks off.

The salmon does everything a good sport fish should by pulling good drag on light gear and leaping into the air.

Best trolled lures are the Rapala XR-8 and Magnums in flake blue and gold scad. Best-value popper is the Trollcraft and top plastics have been white Squidgy Flick Baits. You can get these at McCallum’s.

This month marks the start of closed season for bass and estuary perch to August 31, except for impoundments and dams. This basically means a bag limit of zero and all fish should be returned to the water.

Given the fact that we still had cicadas singing in my backyard in May, you’ll still be in with a shot for some good bass action in many of the local dams where the fish are unable to spawn.

If it’s line-burning estuary fun you’re after, there has been some great action on the big tailor in St Georges Basin over the past month.

Depending on the amount of Winter rain we get, that surface action may continue right through Winter.

After the big seas and rain in late Autumn we saw some epic days with great surface action on 60cm-70cm tailor. Fish of this size are run-of-the-mill for this system so it pays to be armed and ready to go.

It still astounds me how many fishos will be oblivious to bird and surface action within casting distance as they dangle a prawn over the side of the boat.

A basic rig of 40lb-60lb leader and a white plastic or metal slug should do the job when cast into a surface feeding frenzy.

Tailor are the creators of a natural berley trail and a lightly weighted plastic is always in with a shot at bream, reds and maybe the odd mulloway under a tailor school.

If casting lures is not your thing then Winter is prime time for luderick in Sussex Inlet. Green weed under a float with a sand/weed berley will produce some good bags of tasty fish.